It’s been quite a while since I last posted so I figured I’d enlighten my lovely readers (anyone still there?) with a glimpse of what I’ve been up to recently. It’s nothing exciting. As much as I would like to enthrall you all with some sexy tale of sexy spyness or something (I did watch Skyfall the other week, I guess that’s something), I’ve pretty much been consumed by work. Yep, it keeps me busy. That and I don’t actually think there’s been a huge load of excitement in the MMO world this past month. I suppose it’s just that time of year.

Anyway, here’s some tidbits from behind the scenes.

What I’ve been playing

Still WoW, I’m sure you’ll be happy/ashamed to hear. As much as I never developed a taste for raiding, I have somehow in the past couple of months grown to really enjoy the Raid Finder feature. I never thought I would and I’ll admit I was incredibly cynical when I first tried it out with my new minted level 90 monk but I have to say it is rather wonderful. Y’know, standard PUG complaints aside. It does pretty much what it says on the tin and I really enjoy the fact I can get to experience almost all of the WoW content now instead of feeling that I always missing out on the endgame. Hats off to Blizzard and their mission of bringing content to the masses.

I also picked up Heart of the Swarm this week and it’s fairly decent. I’m enjoying it but haven’t been blown away like I was with Wings of Liberty. Part of me just dislikes the whole concept of splitting the game up into three components and keeps wishing it was a single contained game as opposed to this weird expansion trilogy thingy. Kinda sad to think that I will have to watch another two years to play the single player campaign for my favourite race, the Protoss.

What I’ve been watching

Game of Thrones season two. Call me a sucker for HBO’s graphic violence, adolescent banter and soft core pornography but I can’t help but love it. C’mon, you’ve got to give credit to the makers for sneaking in full frontal nudity at every unlikely opportunity. I suppose boobs and willies are cheaper than computer generated dragons. Anyway, it’s almost made me want to finish Dance of Dragons except I still I have no idea who half the characters in it are.

For those closer to home in the UK, my wife and I have also been captivated by the Great British Menu. I know cookery shows are so incredibly passé now but this one still manages to engross, especially when you’re tucking into a pizza as they whip up some two Michelin star masterpiece. The critics are also a blast. I’m surprised the chefs never punch them in the face after watching back some of their comments.

What I’ve been reading

After re-reading the entire Wheel of Time saga bar the last and latest book (still awaiting its arrival on the Kindle… I refuse to punish my feeble arms by trying to hold up a 1,200 page hardcover monstrosity whilst reading), I went on a Brandon Sanderson binge. Simply put, The Way of Kings is amazing and I’m actually squealing with anticipation over the next volume. The first Mistborn book? Not so good. Sacrilege, I know, but I just felt the whole thing was a bit contrived and Sanderson’s prose far from elegant. There’s only so many times you repeat the phrase ‘X rolled his eyes’ in a single novel. Or chapter. Or page. Let’s keep Brandon untouchable though and blame it all on poor editing.

Finishing my Sanderson affair, I’ve just now moved onto the Vorkosigan Saga sci-fi series, starting with the Warrior’s Apprentice. It’s pretty good. The series has been written by Lois McMaster Bujold since the mid-80s and this particular book is nothing if not well-written. She has a fantastic way with words, for sure, and nothing to roll one’s eyes at (see what I did there?). Still, sci-fi has never been my preference over good ol’fantasy. I think I will move onto The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie next. Is it any good?

So that’s me. Now you pretty much know my entire life. Next article, what I had for dinner.

Related Posts

Posted
on February 3, 2013, 10:48 pm,
by Gordon,
under General MMORPG.

The modern incarnation of Mario appears in Call of Duty as an illegal immigrant

My brother, part time gamer and full time noob, is only 35 years of age but to hear him talk you’d think he’s approaching pension age fast. “Those young whipper snappers”, he mutters under his breath whilst shaking his head at the folks in their late twenties who idly wander through his middle class suburban habitat. I’ve never know anyone to skip straight form sulky teenager to lecherous old man before (although admittedly it does come with some rather wonderful family related benefits). I, on other hand, feel pretty great being 31. I feel in my prime, a proper adult with enough milage behind me to give me confidence and enough road ahead to give me hope. No sir, I don’t feel old at all… except when I play MMOs.

The week before last (Christmas Day, to be precise), this blog turned four years old, an incredible feat considering I can vividly remember the day I started it and wondering to myself it would ever survive a year or prove to be even the least bit popular. Well, as fortune would have it, We Fly Spitfires (honestly, I don’t know why I picked that name) is stick alive and kicking and enjoyed (I’m assuming that at least some of you aren’t complete masochists) by thousands of people from around the world. Amazing, really.

Posted
on December 9, 2012, 10:48 pm,
by Gordon,
under General MMORPG.

Is that a bazooka or are you just pleased to see me?

It’s almost the Christmas holidays and I can’t wait. I love running my own business but geez, does it keep me busy. Although I take some holidays throughout the year (I still have 12 days vacation time remaining which says a lot though), the festive period is the one time of year when most non-retail businesses either slow down or shut up completely meaning I should have a pretty long, uninterrupted break from Christmas Eve to the start of January. Bring on the MMO gaming.

Posted
on November 25, 2012, 10:58 pm,
by Gordon,
under General MMORPG.

I miss the days when the most exciting part about combat was reading the damage output text

Perhaps having grown up playing the original Everquest, I’m spoilt with combat in MMOs these days. I mean, one of my most beloved character in Everquest, a Warrior, had only two buttons to press when fighting, Taunt and Kick. And Kick was useless. People aren’t joking when they say that combat used to be a case of pulling a mob, turning on auto-attack and then going to make yourself a cup of tea. I drank a lot of tea in my late teens.

Still, on reflection, to call combat in the MMORPG of the late nineties or early naughties (I hate that term) mindlessly simple is probably doing it a disservice. Grouping was mandatory, pulling was an art, managing aggro was important, crowd control was a skill, maintaining a rhythm in order to chain fights was essential and death was inconvenient enough to make it all matter. Plus, in the time between button pressing (which for a Warrior was quite a lot), there was plenty of opportunity to chat, discuss, gossip and roleplay.

Posted
on November 4, 2012, 10:50 pm,
by Gordon,
under General MMORPG.

WoW starting areas are now reasonably populated. The horror!

I remember the first time I ever logged into a MMO. It was 1999, the game was EverQuest and I was on a 64kb dial-up modem connected via a, get this, pay-by-the-minute ISP (cue accidental £300 phone bill). What seems old hat now seemed incredible to me then and I still recall the first few moments of stepping into Norrath and the surge of excitement I felt at bumping into my first ever MMO player. I’ll never forget jumping up out of my seat and shouting over to brother that a completely random person, a fellow Erudite in the starting city of Erudin, had said ‘hi’ to me.

Posted
on October 21, 2012, 11:03 pm,
by Gordon,
under Everquest Next.

We don't know much about EQNext but I'm pretty sure its box cover art will feature women warriors in metal bikinis

Word on the street is that Everquest Next is going to be a sandbox MMO, a huge one by all accounts. Colour me surprised. Just as I thought SOE were out of tricks, they go and play a blinder on us. I was honestly prepared for the next installment of my beloved EQ franchise to be yet another attempt at a themepark WoW clone. Good for SOE.

Who am I?

Gordon was born on the mean-streets of suburban Holland and learned to fist fight without remorse in steel cage matches at an early age. He now lives in Edinburgh with his wife and their imaginary Nigerian bodyguard, Mr Itunu.